the Philippines consists of over 7,000

islands inhabited by over 100 million

people

the archipelago has for thousands of

years but the natural melting pot of

Asia through the ages immigrants and

adventures from all over East Asia and

as far afield as India and the Middle

East have all found their way to the

Philippines shaped by the geography the

earliest cultures to form in the

Philippine archipelago were small bands

of independent and skilled seafarers

between approximately two thousand and

fifteen hundred years ago many mountains

and Hills were transformed in a terraced

farmland many still in use today are fed

by ancient sophisticated irrigation

systems channeling water down from the

rain forests above the terraces and it

is said that the steps put end to end

would encircle half the globe the

sanguine culture is one of the best

early examples of extensive trade

cultural ties and possibly immigration

into the Philippine archipelago objects

made from gold and glass bronze weapons

tools and mirrors were imported from the

mainland throughout this cultural region

similar art and jewelry was crafted and

the Sahin culture is thought to be the

predecessors of the Cham people of

Vietnam who formed a venerable Kingdom

from the period approximately from 300

AD to 1,000 large numbers of melees

migrating from or possibly fleeing the

rapidly expanding free vijaya empire

began to populate the Philippines during

this period the Aboriginal Melanesian

populations of the archipelago move

further inland to the highlands and

jungles where they still exist today or

intermingled with the successive waves

of mail a newcomers who brought to

Indian religions Buddhism and Hinduism

to the arch FL ago society became

stratified into groups of 100 families

are more called barangays each led by a

head man or da to several doctors were

led by a Rajah who led several barangays

called a Bayon these kingdoms became

extremely wealthy and had trade

relations with the entire eastern world

paramount among these seems to have been

the cosmopolitan city state and trading

hub of

doh located on the island of luzon the

earliest written record discovered in

inscription mentions the state of Tondo

and is written in a script combining

elements of Sanskrit whole Javanese Mele

and Tagalog the bar and gaze of Tondo

were led by alekan instead of a Rajah

and were democratically selected from

among the doctors of each barn gay Tondo

expanded to control much of the island

of Luzon forming alliances and striking

trade bargains to expand their territory

just as often as through warfare formed

from several ethnic groups they phu goa

in the highlands of Luzon formed the

longest-lasting state in the Philippines

this self-sufficient landlocked state

lasted for over a thousand years and was

ruled over by a council of elders

several other long-lasting states formed

throughout the Middle Ages including my

who held diplomatic relations with Song

Dynasty China until Tom dou secured a

monopoly on trade with China in the

archipelago the mad Haas Confederacy was

originally a vassal state of the Sri

Vijayan Empire they would wage war on

the Chinese Imperial Navy and raided the

southern Chinese coast they also were

Tom dough's most significant rival in

the region and thought several wars

surviving epic poem from the region was

composed recounting the deeds of an

ancient hero the Raja of Cebu was

founded by a minor prince of the

southern Indian chola dynasty and

occupied the island of Sumatra far to

the south he was sent to establish an

expeditionary base instead he rebelled

and carved out an independent Rajan ate

for himself the Raja native Bhutan was

known first mining of gold his gold

products and extensive trade networks

reaching the civilizations of modern-day

China Japan India Indonesia Persia

Cambodia and Thailand during this period

large gold deposits were discovered

throughout the Philippines and gold

ingots and bracelets of different sizes

were commonly used as currency

throughout the region the kingdom of

Kavala Wan was a Ming Dynasty tributary

and as time went on they had an

increasingly hostile relationship with

tondo in the early 1400s the Sunni

Islamic brunei and Empire began to

expand into the philippine archipelago

and around the Year 1500

established the semi-independent rajan

knows maritime dominance in the region

built directly across Hondo on the

opposite banks of the Pasig River Delta

Manila would gradually supplant Tondo

which fell under increasing Brunei and

influence the sultanate of maguindanao

ormd in the south rolled over by

hereditary line of Sultan's and

maintained very favorable relations with

the Dutch in English for over three

centuries until finally falling to the

Spaniards in the 19th century in 1521 a

Spanish expedition that would go on to

be the first to circumnavigate the

planet reach the Philippines it was led

by the Portuguese for now Lima Hollis

the Raja of Cebu declared allegiance to

the Spanish crown and converted to

Catholicism the nearby small island of

Mactan was not as amicable and killed

for now as they disembarked with a small

attack force on the island the spaniards

left but would return quickly sending

five subsequent expeditions and in 1543

roy Lopez de Villalobos renamed the

islands las filipinas after philip ii of

spain during the conquest of manila much

of the city was burnt to the ground and

the spanish settlement of manila was

Spanish East Indies

in 1578 the Sulu Sultanate a longtime

vassal of the declining Empire of Brunei

became fully independent and would

become a longtime foe of the Spanish the

sultanate of sulu became notorious for

the so called bora raids pillaging and

taking of slaves the Spanish would burn

down their cities several times only to

have new bases of operations sprout up

on different islands by the mid 1600s

Manila was a bustling port city as

galleons crisscross the Pacific Ocean

leaving from Al Caputo in modern-day

Mexico filled with silver mined air and

in potosi and returning from Manila

filled with luxury goods such as

porcelain silk and spices Spanish

territory would slowly expand defeating

a series of Dutch attempts to seize

Manila the British did seize it for a

short while during the Seven Years War

only to return it after the war had

ended and the treaty stipulated that

they do so

over the centuries of Spanish rule

Spanish became the primary language used

in the Philippines
many of the regional dialects and

scripts completely disappeared over time

following the spanish-american war and

period of US military rule the

Philippines became an American territory

and in 1935 became an American

Commonwealth during the brutal Japanese

occupation of the Philippines in the

Second World War

500,000 to a million Filipino civilians

were killed in 1943 the Japanese set up

a short-lived puppet state after the war

the Philippines returned to being an

American Commonwealth and in 1946 a

Philippine Republic was established

which was replaced by the dictatorship

of Ferdinand Marcos who ruled as a

dictator under martial law from 1972

until 1981 and held the position of

president for over 20 years

his regime was infamous for its

corruption extravagance and brutality

eventually public outrage boiled over

and in a snap election he was removed

from power and fled dawai he was

replaced by Maria Corazon Aquino the

wife of a murdered opposition leader who

returned to face Marcos she has been

followed by five more Philippine

presidents and that was a lightning-fast

has been Epimetheus I hope you enjoyed

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